Even worse for the GOP Senate candidate is the Omaha NBC affiliate's report, which pursues a racial angle and delivers this biting description ... "For Teela Mickles and other African-Americans we talked to, the raccoon reference brought back visions of an insulting anti-black caricature that is dehumanizing, portrayed as idle, lazy and inarticulate."

Bruning acknowledges his comment might have been "inartful" but said he was trying to make a point that spending cuts are necessary.